We've been trying to trace my husbands family but we've been unable to make that Irish Connection. We believe his 3xGr Grandfather - William McFadden - came to Canada to fight with the British in the War of 1812 and was later granted land near Ottawa. He MAY have come with one or more brothers but we haven't been able to confirm that either. We're sure some family members over the years have made their way to the USA as well.I've just ordered a DNA test kit and we hope to have my husbands Uncle do the test. Hopefully we'll be able to pinpoint the specific part of Ireland he came from and maybe, in the process, find some distant relations in Ireland and the US.If anyone else thinks they may be delving into the same line, please feel free to contact me.

Yes, thanks. We keep hitting road blocks with so many Williams and other common names within the family. A lot of possibilities but nothing to confirm the connections. I'll likely have questions when we get the results, if not before!

- To start, you do match one of our groups of McFaddens. I have placed you in "R-M269 > P312 > L21 > DF13 > DF49 > M222 Group 3," which can be seen here: https://www.familytreedna.com/public/mcfadden/default.aspx?section=ycolorized (you will have to be logged in to see all results). There are currently three other men in this group. One traces back to an Andrew McFadden, born about 1788 in Co. Antrim, Ireland, who died in Indiana, USA. One traces back to John "Stephen" McFadin, born about 1700 in northern Ireland, who died in North Carolina, USA. John Stephen McFadin may have been a son of "Andrew McFadden of Maine," who was born in Scotland around 1675, moved to northern Ireland, and then came to the US in 1718. We're still waiting for men with documented descent from Andrew to try to confirm or disprove this. The last match has so far only managed to go back to Indiana, USA in the mid-1800s. It's not yet possible using the current data to determine which of these men are more closely related to your line or estimate exactly how far back the connection is. But we can assume the group shares a common McFadden ancestor who appears to have been a Scot or Ulster Scot.

It's interesting to note that descendants of John Stephen fought in both the American Revolution and the War of 1812 on the side of the Americans. So McFaddens of the same lineage were on both sides.

- What is M222? M222 is a DNA marker that we can assume your line is positive for based on your results. This marker originated in one man who lived roughly 2000 years ago. Everyone with the marker, if they were able, would trace their direct paternal line back to this man. More than one in 10 men of Irish descent have this marker, as well as a smaller but significant percentage of Scots. The marker is commonly associated with the semi-mythical Irish king Niall of the Nine Hostages because many surnames thought to be descended from Niall are found to be M222+. However, even if Niall were to be M222+ himself, the marker appears to be centuries older than him. So I would not advise assuming you are descended from Niall, but I can say your line almost certainly traces back to an ancient Gaelic king or chief.

Because M222 is such a massive group, it's not possible to assume all McFaddens who are M222 are of the same McFadden line. We currently have four different M222 groups in the project. It's possible some of them are related. It's a near certainty that not all of them are. One of the goals of the project is to sort this out through advanced testing for markers like M222. I'd be happy to explain further if you might have an interest in that. Also happy to answer any other questions you might have.

Thank you so much for all this information. I wasn't expecting results for another few weeks. I'm glad they went straight to you to be deciphered! We'll have to take some time to digest this and I'll most likely have some questions. Our McFadden family picnic is in a few weeks so it'll be nice to be able to share this information with them al!

No problem. When you join a project, the results are automatically visible to everyone in the project (unless you choose to make them private). This allows us to pool information and provide some analysis.

The group of McFaddens you are in already has multiple branches going back a few hundred years even though we are still a relatively small project. Because of this, I anticipate we will see your group grow substantially in the future and therefore be able to learn more about it. Especially once we are able to get in more Scottish testers.

If John Stephen McFadin was indeed the son of Andrew McFadden of Maine, that would push the common ancestor of the group back to Scotland in the mid-1600s at a minimum. If the group were to be of the same lineage as another M222 group in the project, that would make the line even older. The surname has supposedly been around since at least the 12th century. It will be interesting to see if we can find a lineage that we can estimate to go back that far.